Doctrines of the Indian Constitution

This is a discussion on Doctrines of the Indian Constitution within the Legal Aptitude preparation forums, part of the Law Preparation category; Doctrine of eclipse:
It states that an existing law which is inconsistent with a fundamental right become in operative from ...

Doctrines of the Indian Constitution

12-13-2012

Doctrine of eclipse:
It states that an existing law which is inconsistent with a fundamental right become in operative from the date of the commencement of the constitution,it cannot be accepted as dead altogether.To restate it: A law made before the commencement of the constitution remains eclipsed or dormant to the extent it comes
under the shadow of the fundamental rights

Doctrine of severability:
A law becomes invalid only to the extent to which it is inconsistent with the fundamental rights. So only that part of the law will be declared invalid which is inconsistent, and the rest of the law will stand. However, on this point a clarification has been made by the courts that invalid part of the law shall be severed and declared invalid if really it is severable, i.e if after separating the invalid part the valid part is capable of giving effect to the legislature’s
intent, then only it will survive, otherwise the court shall declare the entire law as invalid. This is known as Doctrine severability.

Doctrine of implied power:
This is a Legal principle which states that, in general, the rights and duties of a legislative body or organization are determined from its functions and purposes as specified in its constitution or charter and developed in practice.

Doctrine of basic structure:
Doctrine of basic structure is the judge-made principle that certain features of the Constitution of India are beyond the limit of the powers of amendment of the Indian parliament. This doctrine, was first expressed in Kesavananda Bharati v. The State of Kerala.The basic structure doctrine applies only to the constitutionality of amendments and not to ordinary Acts of Parliament, which must conform to the entirety of the constitution and not just to its basic structure

Doctrine of colourable legislation:
It is based on the maxim that what cannot be done directly cannot also be done indirectly.It is only when a legislature having no power to legislate frames a legislation in a way that it is camouflaging the same as to make it appear to fall within its competence, the legislation thus enacted may be regarded as colourable legislation.

Doctrine of pith and substance
Pith means "true nature" or "essence" and substance means the essential nature underlying a phenomenon. Thus, the doctrine of pith and substance relates to finding out the true nature of a statute. This doctrine is widely used when deciding whether a state is within its rights to create a statute that involves a subject mentioned in Union List of the Constitution. The basic idea behind this principle is that an act or a provision created by the State is valid if the true nature of the act or the provision is about a subject that falls in the State list.